Thanks to Facebook, you can now have your (birthday) cake and eat it, too. Well, almost. The social media megalith launched a new feature Monday that allows users to send a 15-second, personalized message via a “birthday video cam.”
So, instead of scrolling through a timeline of static text messages on your special day, you can now make your friends do a little more work for that birthday greeting.
When a friend’s birthday notification pops up on your Facebook page, just tap it to record your (PG) birthday video. You can even select a festive frame to make your mini-movie even more memorable.
Facebook has plans to extend several new features to its 1.5 billion users worldwide, including in-app business-to-consumer messaging and “reaction” emojis. The birthday video cam feature is already available on iOS, with the Android version coming mid-year.
However, since most people don’t use Facebook with their sound on, your video message might work better if you hold up cue cards and pretend you’re Mark and Juliet from “Love Actually.”
